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The three-match one-day series between Pakistan and Australia has finished with Pakistan 2-1 up and the pitches, rather than the cricket, still dominating the chat. Rawalpindi and Lahore both served up square turners – slow surfaces offering sharp spin from the start – and the home side used them well against an Australian squad already minus several first-choice players.
Pakistan closed out the decider in a low-scoring scrap at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday night. Whether that result genuinely helps preparations for next year’s World Cup in southern Africa, where fast bowlers normally call the tune, is the knot local supporters are trying to untangle.
Mike Hesson, now part of Pakistan’s back-room set-up, tried to calm things down before the second game. On X he noted that not every ground in South Africa, Zimbabwe or Namibia is a bouncy one and promised training blocks “for a variety of conditions”. After sealing the series, captain Shaheen Shah Afridi was stronger in his defence.
“There are 15 months to the World Cup,” he said. “Every team prepares pitches that suit them when they play in their backyard to win. We have Test series [in West Indies and England] in which some of these players will play and they can use them to prepare themselves [for the World Cup] … We played on green and bouncy pitches when we went to Australia under [Mohammad] Rizwan’s captaincy and we won that series. You cannot offer them green wickets when they come here because we have to win.
“These were tough wickets, and scoring runs or spending time on them was not easy. We have time on our hands before the World Cup and we will prepare pitches of different characteristics as well in the build-up.”
Trying new faces has been another theme. Six debutants were used in the earlier trip to Bangladesh, and in Rawalpindi left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas joined that list. He responded with five for 28, the best figures by a Pakistani on ODI debut, and later walked away with the player-of-the-series award for handy lower-order runs on top. Uncapped quick Ahmed Daniyal and keeper-batter Rohail Nazir stayed on the bench, but management seem happy enough with the growing pool.
Shadab Khan’s return after a year away created most of the selection noise. Rust was obvious: he leaked runs in the opening two fixtures and looked short of rhythm. The leg-spinner did tighten up in the finale, though, and with the bat he showed a calmer head than in the past. He…
